Now. Don’t get me wrong — there is something to be said for all kind of baked goods. But in my opinion, being able to make a fabulous cake is invaluable.

Cakes are delicious, versatile, impressive, and always necessary. A homemade birthday cake ALWAYS blows a store bought cake right out of the water.

So if you are cake challenged, this post is for you. Let’s go over a few basics!

1. PRACTICE. A LOT.

I took cake decorating classes for several months, and it STILL took a long time to learn to frost a cake nice and smooth. No matter WHAT you learn, or how many tutorials you watch, it’s something you just have to get a feel for. Nowadays, I can practically frost a cake with my eyes shut but that’s because I’ve done it a zillionty times.A turntable like THIS (it tilts, which I LOVE), a spatula like THIS, and a scraper like THIS are always on hand when I frost a cake. They make things much easier!!

2. CONSISTENCY.

The consistency of your frosting is key. If it’s too thick, it won’t spread well. Think of it like spreading butter on a piece of bread…colder, thicker butter tears the bread, but softened butter spreads nice and smooth. The same applies to frosting. Test a small bit of it on the side of your cake. If it’s not spreading nicely, add a bit of milk or water to your frosting (1 tsp or so at a time) until it does.

3. CHILL CHILL CHILL.

The most important step of all is CHILLING YOUR CAKE!! I cannot stress this enough. If at all possible, I bake my cakes a day ahead, wrap them in plastic and chill overnight before leveling and frosting. Not only does it drastically improve flavor (it increases the moistness of the cake like crazy), but it also makes it WAAAAY easier to level and frost. A chilled cake is very firm, so it’s not delicate and crumby. If you want to cut your cake into extra layers, a serrated knife goes right through a cold cake without tearing or breaking it. If baking your cake the day before isn’t possible, wrap it and stick it in the freezer for a few hours. It’s not quite the same, but good enough.

4. KEEP IT CLEAN.

I firmly believe that appearance greatly contributes to the flavor of a cake. Pretty things are much more appetizing, aren’t they? So keep your frosting neat, and clean up any stray frosting that may have gotten around the edge of your platter. If your frosting looks sloppy, add some extra and give it fluffy texture instead of going for the smooth look. Even a simple cake looks gorgeous if you level it nicely (that dome in the center has GOT to go) frost it, and stick it on a pretty plate. If you aren’t comfortable with leveling your cake with a knife (I couldn’t do it for a long time), use a leveler like this. It’s inexpensive and worth every penny!! I also used to use a small picture hanging level to make sure my cake wasn’t leaning. Gotta do what you’ve gotta do.

5. AIN’T NOTHIN’ WRONG WITH A CAKE MIX — BUT HAVE A COUPLE GOOD HOMEMADE RECIPES IN YOUR ARSENAL.

I’ve used cake mixes for years — some of the biggest compliments I’ve gotten on my cakes are the ones I just use a mix for (again — it comes down to chilling the cake) BUT….there is just something about telling someone you made them a cake from scratch. The America’s Test Kitchen white cake recipe is phenomenal, and you can’t go wrong with the chocolate cake on the back of the Hershey’s Cocoa Box. It’s that easy.

6. LAST BUT NOT LEAST — EXPERIMENT WITH BUTTERCREAM!!!

The recipe I use for buttercream is very standard — 2 sticks butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and a few TBS of milk, depending on how thin I need the frosting to be. This is the EASIEST part of your cake to adapt. The frosting can change the whole flavor of the cake!! I’ve added mint extract and chopped chocolate for Mint Chocolate Chip Cake, subbed cherry juice for the milk and folded in chopped cherries for Cherry Garcia Cake, and subbed peanut butter for some of the butter and folded in chopped Butterfinger bars for Peanut Butter Butterfinger Cake. Cinnamon, pureed strawberries, cocoa powder, crushed candy…all are great additions to frosting.

Now that we’ve graduated Cake School (yaaaaayyyy), here is a seriously fabulous recipe.

Unless you don’t like chocolate. IN which case, we can still be friends, buuuuutttt…we are on thin ice. Just saying.

The cookies and cream filling has a whipped cream base, which keeps it from being too heavy or sweet. And the fudge frosting is just right (and the perfect consistency for spreading). Give this a whirl ASAP!!!

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tops of cake spring back when lightly touched in the center. Let cool in pans for about 5 minutes, then remove to cool completely on wire racks. Once cakes are room temperature, wrap and chill (preferably overnight).

Prepare filling:

Place the metal bowl of your mixer, along with whisk attachment, in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from freezer and add heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Beat on high until you have whipped cream that forms stiff peaks (keep an eye on it....it can turn to butter if you let it go too long). Fold in crushed cookies.

Level your chilled cakes, then split each layer in half. Fill each layer generously with cookies and cream filling. If possible, stick in the freezer for about an hour, so the filling will firm up and not make it difficult to frost.

Prepare frosting: In the bowl of your mixer, beat butter and vanilla on medium speed until smooth. With the mixer on low, add powdered sugar and cocoa powder slowly until just barely mixed in. Add water and beat on high speed for about 2 minutes. Frost cake and serve.

Notes

Cake portion adapted from Hershey

3.1

This cake is seriously impressive…I really hope you enjoy it. It tastes every bit as good as it looks!!

Have a great Monday!

About Kristan

Hey cutie! Thanks for reading :) Let me introduce myself -- I'm Kristan (pronounced Kris-TANNE) a work-at-home mom living, baking, and online shopping in Fort Smith Arkansas. I have a 12 year-old son Jon David, a 4 year-old daughter Lucy, and a husband, Jess. I completely adore all of them 96% of the time (the rest of the time you can find me drinking my feelings with a box of Pinot). I hope you stay awhile -- I'd love to get to know you!

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Great cake tips, I try to make my cakes before and freeze them as well. Makes life so much easier when handling the cake. I actually made some cupcakes exactly like this today but I didn’t like the cake base so I ended up dumping the cupcakes, so seeing this post right now makes me so sad mine didn’t work out! I even did an oreo whipped cream in the center of the cupcakes! Ha oh well! Your cake looks gorgeous. I could defo dive into it!!

Gorgeous, stunning and incredible!! I am so with you that a cake is must know how to do baked good and that homemade cake trumps all others. I have been racking my brain for cake ideas for a month. Cookies and cream has been on idea list for a while. Your sthough is just screaming make me!! Even if I cannot post this, I must make make it. The layers are gorgeous and the fudgy chocolate cake layer is calling my name.
WOW!!
I love cakes so much!

This cake is gorgeous and I definitely want to eat it. I’m weird about cake though. I like it to look nice and all, but if a cake is too pretty, I just kinda want to roll my eyes and walk away. I don’t know, I like things to look homemade, I guess. Maybe I’m just jealous. Probably. Right now, I’m jealous that I’m not eating that cake up there.

Fudge, cookies and cream?! Just, yes!! And, thank you for the tips – so useful! I’m terrified of leveling my cakes (I can’t even cut paper straight) so I think I’ll need to fork out some money for a device that’ll do it for me!

I totally agree with you about being able to make a fabulous cake is vital to your ranking in your baking status. I feel this way about pie crust too! I got the cake down….working on the piecrust! Step by step tips on piecrust would be great from you too! Hint…hint! ;)

Love this post! I have to admit I am a classic no chiller for cakes… too impatient, which makes no sense bc I will chill cookie dough for days.
I need to figure out what in my life is causing this contradiction.

Such great tips! I worked in a bakery for quite some time, and when they gave me “mini cake school”, it was basically all of these tips! Making a beautiful cake really isn’t that hard if you have the patience to go through the steps.
Now, this cake looks amazing! The whipped filling sounds to die for!

Wow! I just showed this to my son and he wants it for his 15th birthday cake next month. It’s gorgeous!! Sounds perfectly amazing, too! I have one teensy question about the oil instead of butter in the cake batter…I usually don’t use mixes, so my cakes all use butter. Is there a way to sub them or do I need to just suck it up and use oil? I don’t want to be an “oil snob” , but i really love the butter…am I a snob?! I’m just gonna do it. How can a cake that looks so freaking delicious be bad?
Thanks for the recipe!!

Wow you always have such wonderful treats. Both my kids celebrate their birthdays in August, and this cake will definitely be a contender. They have the final say. If not for their bdays then certainly another time.

Hello! My name is Jess, and I run a food blog called Floptimism where every week I write a post called “Weekend Wrap Up.” Basically, it’s where I highlight some of my favorite web finds from the past week to share with my readers. I loved this cake so much that I featured it on this week’s wrap-up, and wanted to let you know. Thank you for such a great recipe and blog post! I’ve included the link below in case you’re interested. I hope you had a great weekend!

My son has requested this cake for his birthday party on Saturday. I have a question about the cocoa powder. In the cake, you specify dutch process (Hershey’s special dark) but in the frosting you don’t specify either way. Do you use “regular” in the frosting? or special dark? Help!!
Thanks in advance!

Hi, this cake really is seriously impressive! I made it for my nephews 6th birthday and what a stunner! I think I have never gotten that many compliments for a cake! Thanks you so much for sharing this gorgeous recipe!

I tried this recipe twice and both times the center got a hard crust, like a cookie in the middle. I have never, never had a problem with a basic cake recipe so this stumped me. The first time i used butter/flour to the cake pan and the 2nd time used cake release. Neither way worked. Any ideas on what could have happened. I followed the recipe exactly, even timing my mixing times. All ingredients were fresh, I just baked bread last weekend.

I am so sorry to hear that! The cake batter part of this recipe is just lightly adapted from Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake, so there should not be any issues. I make it all the time!! The only thing I would suggest is maybe checking your oven temp..some run hot. The edges of a cake usually bake before the center, so I don’t really know what could be causing it.

LOVE this cake! Making it for my daughters birthday on Saturday. When you say chill the cake overnight is that in the freezer? And if so after splitting and leveling do you wait for them to be room temp before filling and frosting? Thanks!!!

On a second note.. This probably isn’t the best choice for breakfast since it is so hard to stop eating it!! But totally worth it :) People seriously if you are even thinking about making this cake just do it! You will not regret it. And neither will your friends if you decide to share!

I found this recipe on Pinterest. It was the first one that popped up so I went with it. I was looking for a pretty cake since I would be taking it to Thanksgiving dinner for my sons birthday. It was THE most eaten dessert. There were only 3 slices left (thank the Lord seeing as Im 33 weeks pregnant and NEED cake).
It also turned out to be the prettiest and closest match to the picture, cake that I have ever made thanks to your baking college tips! Chilling the cake made things so much easier. Wait.
The Cake.
OH MY LAWD!
I could have eaten just the cake…ok i did eat just the cake leftovers after leveling it. It was SO moist and so delicious without adding anything!
Anyways the whipped filling was perfect for making it not to rich. I did however need 2 batches in order to make each layer as thick as the picture. It is super easy to make.
I took my time with each step because I wanted it to look great and it did. I wish I could post a picture!

Make sure you keep this cake chilled. Between the butter cream and whipped filling it will get mushy once its warm. It taste way better chilled anyway!

Thank you Kristan for this awesome recipe that will fo in my recipe book forever!
Oh ya. I will be making it again this weekend for a christmas party because i posted pictures on facebook throughout the baking and layering and my boss (who bakes amazing cakes at her restaurant) told my husband that she wanted some!
Kristan you have made me look awesome!

As a very new and rookie baker/cook, I gave this a whirl as my husband and his co-workers LOVE sweets. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this recipe. Followed it exactly and it’s delicious. The chocolate cake/icing isn’t over powering together (which I was scared would happen).. and the filling…. it’s something you could eat by itself during a depressing episode of Greys Anatomy.
I made a few “cosmetic” errors, but all things I learned from and will remember next time I make this cake.
From my satisfied family to yours, thank you for sharing! :)

Hi
I wanted to know if you could make the filling the night before as well? I’ve made the cakes and they’re in the fridge for tonight, I was hoping I could do the filling tonight as well in order to save time.

Hello, this cake looks amazing! I’m wondering what kind of cookies you used? I was thinking I’d use Oreos, but do you crumble them into the filling WITH the white Oreo filling in there too? Or do you scrape off the Oreo filling, and just crumble the cookies? Thanks!!!

Hello! I’m making this cake for my mom for her bday this upcoming weekend, any ideas if I need to add more flour or such due to high altitude? (I live in denver), I typically have to add a couple of tbsp flour for cookies but have never ventured into cakes. Looking forward to trying all your tips! Thanks in advance!

Hi! Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I did have a few questions about defrosting frozen cakes. I’ve always been told to thaw out the cake with the plastic wrap on so the condensation will stick to the wrap instead of the cake. If I unwrap my frozen cake to torte it, do I wrap it back up in my plastic wrap to continue to defrost? Thank you in advance. :)

Okay…I had to put a comment here for you. It was my son’s 6th birthday last week and he had specifically asked for a cookies and cream cake. Thank goodness for Google because I found you…and this recipe. I’m no slouch in the baking department – my son declares it as one of my talents! So I gave it a whirl. I have a number of successful chocolate cake recipes but this one is by far and away the very best. It is the moist fudgy chocolately cake that we all crave without being sickly sweet. And it’s a keeper. The last few slices have been dwindling away while being kept in the fridge and it is still perfect!
You’re suggestions re chilling etc were spot on (I’ve done a lot of cake decorating and always chilled!)…and the cake was successfully turned into a green Lego block.
I had one happy little 6 year old.
Thank you so much for sharing.

I love everything about this post! I came because the cake looked to scrumptious not to examine more closely, but when I got here, I was pleasantly surprised with cake school! So many tips I didn’t know existed! Thank you so very much for this post! I have pinned it for both the recipe and the tips :)

This cake looks fabulous and so delicious! I am curious about your cake freezing technique. Can you share your process? I would love to perfect cake baking!
Thanks for all the wonderful recipes. You are an inspiration in my kitchen!

I just made for my husbands birthday :) he loves everything cookies and cream! Man was it a hit at his party! The cake came out so moist- I worried I overcooked it a bit but I left it in the fridge overnight and it was fantastic! I did use half water and half coffee to punch up the chocolate flavor :) When cutting the cakes in half I also put them on a large glass plate with a lip and just kept the knife along the lip as I cut – I’ve never done this before and it was so easy! And the whipped cream was perfect and not overly sweet. A slice of this cake definitely needs a tall glass of ice cold milk! Thanks for the post! Defiantly a recipe I will make again :)

This cake looks awesome. I love whipped cream. Most people say to add sugar later after it forms a soft peak. Will the cream firm up if I combine the sugar with heavy cream first? Last time I made oreo whipped cream, it ended up very wet after I folded the crushed oreo in. Any tips will be appreciated. Thanks.

I actually came back just to warn people about this issue. I’ve made the Hershey cake before that this recipe is based on and you definitely need to use 9″ pans or else it will spill over, or you could use the 8″ pans but use part of the batter to make cupcakes.

Hi, wow, doesn’t this cake just look amazing! Thank you for all the helpful tips, I was just wondering when you wrote ‘chill the cake overnight’ did you mean to place it in the fridge or freeze it overnight? Thank you!

I just made your Cookies & Cream cake, well I boxed it with the cake part, but made the filling and frosting. Your tips were immensely helpful and the cake….omg, the final product was PERFECTION! I wish I could attach a pic. Just wanted to say thanks. An 11-yr-old was pretty stoked and a room full of kids and adults alike enjoyed a fantastic piece of dessert. =D

I made this cake for a party last night. It was a HUGE hit. I love collecting recipes, and have many in my book that this crowd loves. But, I heard more compliments about this cake than any other I had baked before. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out great.

Hi! This cake looks so delicious Im going to make it this weekend for my daughters birthday! I was wondering if I could cover this exact cake, with the fudgy frosting and all, with fondant since I’m making her a princess castle cake? Thanks! Cant wait to see how it turns out! Hope it is as good as yours looks!